Florida voters may decide assault weapon ban, gun sales restrictions

MIAMI — Florida voters could be asked to ban the transfer of many types of semi-automatic rifles and they could institute new age and wait limits on the purchase of any firearm, under two proposals the Constitution Revision Commission is scheduled to hear on Tuesday.

Both measures were submitted after the National Rifle Association on Friday sued the state soon after Gov. Rick Scott signed a new $400 million school-safety and gun-control law that imposed a three-day waiting period and a 21-year age limit on long gun purchases in response to the Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

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The new Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act does not call for a ban on tactical or assault-style weapons — such as the AR-15 used in the slaughter — because the Republican majority in the Florida Legislature opposed the measure repeatedly after Democrats attempted to amend the legislation.

“Floridians should have a right to vote on this,” said Constitution Revision Commissioner Chris Smith, a former state Senate Democratic leader. “The Legislature had its vote and that’s about 160 people. Now the rest of Florida should have a say.”

Smith acknowledged that his proposal to ban “assault weapons” and another by Commissioner Roberto Martinez concerning age and waiting period purchases might not make it on to the ballot at this final meeting of the commission, which meets every 20 years to propose Florida Constitutional amendments that voters need to approve in November, by a 60 percent threshold.

Martinez, who was appointed to the commission by state Supreme Court Chief Justice Jorge Labarga, said placing the age limit and waiting period into the state constitution would insulate the new law against state-level legal challenges.

Martinez did not directly comment on Smith’s proposal, except to say he and other commissioners welcomed all proposals. “I think all of us welcome the opportunity to debate any reasonable proposal, even those that some may not think is reasonable,” he said.

Because it’s so late in the process, the measures are being proposed as amendments to an existing amendment concerning an old provision of Florida’s Constitution that could limit “the ownership, inheritance, disposition and possession of real property by aliens ineligible for citizenship.” The so-called alien land law is in a part of the constitution that the gun provisions would fall under, Smith said, but some commissioners may find that firearms are not germane and could rule against including the provisions.

Smith’s measure is also broad and would classify nearly any semi-automatic rifle as an “assault weapon” simply because it could accept an ammunition magazine of more than 10 rounds. The proposal bans the transfer of the weapons, whether by sale or gift.

“You don’t need a magazine of more than 10 rounds,” Smith said. “And if people have a problem with that [on the commission] they can amend this.”

The proposals submitted by Smith and Martinez will need the approval of 22 members of the 37-member commission before it’s placed before voters on the ballot next November. Any proposals by the commission for the November ballot will require 60 percent of voter approval to amend the constitution.

A recent Quinnipiac University poll of Florida voters found that they approve of an assault weapons ban by 62-33 percent, barely enough to clear the 60 percent threshold now. The same poll showed that, by 78-20 percent, Florida voters want all gun buyers to be 21 or older and by 87-10 percent they support waiting periods of an indeterminate period of time for all gun buys.

Tuesday’s public hearing begins at 1 p.m. at the University of South Florida student center in St. Petersburg.